Is home ownership really something that we should encourage? Germany and Switzerland seem to be doing fine with home ownership rates of barely 50%. Doesn't renting encourage people to make better investments and allow for more workforce mobility?
And besides, do we really need a tax exemption that will disproportionately benefit the affluent - i.e. those who have already taken the most expensive houses? It seems to me that we'd be better off removing the interest deduction without replacing it with anything.
Of course we should encourage home ownership. The People in this country have different social desires... than elsewhere. I am surprised, in particular, to see Senator TNF advocating for more rentiership. One would think that he'd be disinclined to have The working People beholden to landlords. Of course, I'm assuming we'd all be living in public housing if he had his way... but the fact is that it is good economic sense to give common People a nice, appreciating financial asset. Renting is simply unrecoverable money.
